Department 13 chief executive Jonathan Hunter
Australia’s Department 13, has teamed up with major global defence contractor Raytheon Company to market and support Department 13’s MESMER counter drone solution and co-develop new technologies. A counter drone solution, Department 13’s patented MESMER product can be integrated into security and surveillance systems to detect and mitigate dangerous drones which may be used in malicious acts including war and espionage.
The operator of MESMER can take control of a drone and either safely land, redirect the device or return it to its launch place. The technology can also control swarms of drones at the same time using different radio protocols.
Chief executive Jonathan Hunter said the partnership with Raytheon would give the company immediate validity and help it close new deals.
“Raytheon is one of the world’s top five tier one defence contractors and it has a market capitalisation of $70 billion,” he said.
“They give our tech validation in the global market. When Raytheon comes in it’s not overnight, they invest time and research the market and the technology.
“They also allow for us to scale and give risk mitigation and quality assurance to potential customers.”
At this stage the partnership involves Raytheon promoting the software to its client base and also sending its own sales staff to accompany Department 13 at events and exhibits to help sell the product.
Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services program director Bob Busey said the duo would also work together to develop unique counter drone technologies to defend against the growing threat of adversaries which use commercial drones to target the US and other nations.
Department 13 was founded in 2010 as a research company doing work for the US Department of Defence and the Office of the Secretary of State. It joined the ASX in early 2016 via a backdoor listing and since going public has raised $20 million and done deals with three organisations in Australia, south-east Asia and Latin America ranging from the military to a federal prison and a critical infrastructure provider.
The company’s product MESMER can detect if a drone is safe or dangerous and as drones are increasingly used commercially. Mr Hunter said he expected a drone registry to be developed that would aid in identifying drones.
“Let’s say there’s a critical infrastructure site in Perth [using MESMER], you want to make sure no drones fly over, so it has 24/7 always on capacity and it senses the environment when a drone comes into preview,” he said.
“It will detect it, identify the type of drone and then depending on how the client has it configured, it can mitigate the drone based on the outcome they want. So it could communicate with it to land, land in a designated safe zone or return home.
“It’s significant because most counter unmanned aerial vehicle systems use some form of jamming or cyber attack, but we don’t use any software and after the mitigation you could take the battery out of the drone and give it to a 10-year-old kid.”
In 2016 Raytheon recorded $24 billion in sales and the business has a 95-year-old history in defence, civil government and cybersecurity solutions.
“The big goal for us this year is to keep expanding the relationship with Raytheon and push their sales and marketing apparatus,” Mr Hunter said. “The other thing too is we want to put our software onto other hardware platforms … and because our IP portfolio is extensive we could have licensing opportunities.”
Sources: Small Caps; Financial Review